Venzuela Time Zone change

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has announced on 27 November 2007 that a change to the time zone for the country, which to date has typically observed South America Western Standard Time. The start date for new time zone is projected to occur on December 9, 2007. When customers move to the new time zone, clocks will move backwards 30 minutes, from UTC -4:00 to UTC -4:30. This change begins at 2:59:59 AM local time on the start date. Clocks should be moved back to 2:30:00 AM rather than advancing to 3:00:00 AM.

Systems and applications in countries that are not implementing this changes could be affected if they support users, transactions, or applications involving Venezuela. For example, scheduling or synchronizing problems may arise where systems make or check date or time stamps relating to transactions in Venezuela, or there may be difficulty in applications that perform scheduling calculations.

Solution

Many systems and applications can be changed now. This site will help you find the necessary information for affected products, so that you can plan updates to help reduce the risk of application and system problems resulting from this timezone change.

Operating System changes

It is important to make sure that the operating system has the correct timezone information. In most cases you can manually update the timezone on your system. Follow the links for additional information:

Linux® for System z™, System p™, System i™, or System x™- information will be updated when available.

i5/OS® PTFs for i5/OS will be posted when they are complete, Please check back. In the interim you can find information about steps to take to prepare for the new timezone here: 2007 Time Change for Venezuela.

Java Changes

Many user applications and middleware software products depend upon the time handling functions provided by Java. Since many IBM products deliver a version of Java as part of the package, you will normally have a number of versions of Java installed on your systems and you will need to make updates. The IBM Centre for Java Technology Development has produced a tool to adjust timezone information and Daylight Saving Time rules.

The IBM Time Zone Update Utility for Java (JTZU) updates the time zone information in IBM supplied releases and service refreshes of the Java SDK and JRE. It provides a method of applying preventive service to IBM products that embed the Java SDK or JRE. It avoids the need to carry out a total replacement of the SDK or JRE and executes independently of any Fix Packs or Service Packs supplied by IBM products. It will update only the time zone information and apply no other fixes.

If your SDK or JRE was downloaded from IBM developerWorks or supplied by a Linux Distributor, the IBM Centre for Java Technology is working on new service refresh levels. Watch DeveloperWorks for these updates but they are not expected to be released before December 9th. See Olson timezone Updates for Java for more information about JRE/SDK Service Refreshes for IBM Products.

International Components for Unicode (ICU)

For generic information and update instructions for ICU4C and ICU4J, refer the ICU User Guide.
ICU time zone data version 2007j contains the new timezone offset for Venezuela. There are multiple versions of data files available under the download directory. ICU users are recommended to read the ICU User Guide page to download the right one for the target platform.

ICU4J plug-in has been bundled with Eclipse since Eclipse version 3.2. ICU4J plug-in users should not apply the standard update instruction described above. ICU development provides the latest time zone patch through the Eclipse software update site. This patch is not yet available. Information will be posted here when it becomes available.

IBM software products

Any application or middleware that provides calendaring or scheduling functions will need to know the right timezone information. While many depend on Java, some products may require additional actions. Refer to the following for additional guidance on preparing for the Venezuela timezone change.

Information Management

Any changes in DST rules or timezone information, including the introduction of the new Venezuela timezone, require that the Java runtime used by IBM DB2® or IBM Informix® Dynamic Server (IDS) be upgraded to a level that supports the new changes. DB2 and IDS customers can upgrade the JDK according to the IBM Java Technology Center's recommendation:

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